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5 Productivity Hacks for the Startup CEO

Ashish Rangnekar is the CEO and Co-Founder of BenchPrep, a marketplace and learning platform for exam prep and assessment courses. Follow him @ashishrangnekar.

Startups are all about speed, efficiency, and maniacal focus. It’s exactly this breakneck pace and agility that enables them to beat large corporations at their own game. The startup CEO must also embody this speed and efficiency while managing exponential growth and, very often, the pains that come with it.

While a startup can grow from two to 100 employees and one to one million users, its CEO remains with just 24 hours a day to manage it all. That can be daunting, overwhelming, and exhausting if you lose focus. To stay on top, here are five simple, yet very powerful, productivity hacks.

1. Focus on Three Priorities a Day

Before you start the day — at the office, home or on the road — jot down three important tasks that you must finish that day at any cost. No more, no less. Just three. Of course, you may have to work on ten other things and stop to put out fires, but identifying and planning your entire day around these priorities enables you to maintain focus and keep critical tasks from getting lost in the fray.

2. Leave 10 Minutes for Email

Continuous access to an avalanche of emails can make you feel obligated to frequently check your email. But few emails require immediate attention, and taming the email beast can be a tremendous drain on productivity. Instead, set aside 10 minutes each hour to check and reply to emails. There is no need to write long dissertations with thoughtfully articulated openings and endings. You are busy and so is the next person. Keep it short. When necessary, handle critical issues that demand immediate attention with internal chat.

3. Make 20-Minute Meetings the Norm

As your team and responsibility grows, so can the number of meetings that sap your productivity, and that of your team. Every discussion does not require a 60-minute session. In fact, probably 95% of these conversations can be handled in 20 minutes or less. But you have to set appropriate expectations. Start by changing the default meeting length in your calendar tool to 20 minutes. In the long term, this will improve the overall efficiency and clarity of your communication, and encourage the entire team to communicate more quickly and with fewer words.

4. Give Yourself a 30-Minute Head Start

A CEO should be three steps ahead of the competition, two steps ahead of investors/partners, and a step ahead of other team members. An easy way to stay ahead is to start ahead. Begin your day 30 minutes before your stakeholders. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to be in the office 30 minutes before everyone. The idea is to anticipate issues and tasks before anyone else and get a jump on them early in the day. Also, before leaving the office each day, plan for things you know will need to be handled the next day. Perhaps even drop an email to your team so that it's waiting in their inbox the next morning.

5. Have a 40-Minute Chill Out

Hacks or no hacks, managing time is a challenging task and it can wear you down quickly. Be smart about productivity and don’t adhere to the theory of "just work hard" no matter what the cost. You must make time to clear your head, focus your thoughts, and relax. Otherwise, you'll burn out. Step away for about 40 minutes every five hours to re-energize and regain your focus. Lunch with the team is a great way to relax, yet utilize the time toward achieving a greater goal. Casual lunch conversations will help take your mind off work while building a great relationship with colleagues.

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